New York SBDC Research Network

In honor of National Small Business Week, please join America's SBDC (@ASBDC) for "10 Most Common Small Business Questions" Twitter Chat on May 4th at 3pm ET. @ASBDC will serve as the chat "moderator." America's SBDC will post questions every 7-9 minutes for about 45 minutes beginning at 3pm ET using the hashtag, #SBDC. Questions will be noted as Q1, Q2, etc. In your response, please note your answers with A1, A2, etc. For example, @ASBDC will post "Q1: What's your favorite marketing technique? #SBDC" and you might respond: "A1. We recommend writing a blog #SBDC". Feel free to RT the questions so your followers know which question you are answering. The chat will last about 50-60 minutes depending on the pace of responses. If other Twitter users are chiming in, please feel free to RT them or answer their questions. Just remember to add the hashtag #SBDC. Here are the questions that @ASBDC will be posting: • Q1: Do I have what ...

The Internet has gone visual. With the world moving at the speed of a tweet, getting your message out there can be tough—especially if you're only using words. Studies show that our brains are more efficient at processing images than words. Some 75% of Americans have used emoji to communicate to others. Virtual corkboard site Pinterest has 53 million unique monthly users. Even Facebook is leaning hard into the image game, as evidenced by its recent $1 billion acquisition of Instagram, which has 300 million users itself. Images overlaid with text—often called Internet memes—are a popular way for brands to reach their audiences. Ride that popularity wave by creating your own marketing images for distribution. As your followers and fans share the images, your products, your logo, and your brand spread to people you may not have reached otherwise. Read more from Marketing Profs

Some 84% of Millennials say they like companies on Facebook as a way to show their support for the brand, according to recent research conducted by Nora Ganim Barnes, PhD, and Ava Lescault, MBA, at The Center for Marketing Research, University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth. Other common reasons for liking brands on Facebook include wanting to receive updates (83% of respondents) and a desire to get coupons/discounts (66%). Read more from MarketingProfs

Large and small businesses alike have spent the better part of the past half-decade trying to best leverage the marketing potential of Facebook – and rightly so. Facebook reports 1.23 billion active users worldwide, and an increase of 92 percent when it comes to shared content since 2012. People like Facebook – a lot – but it seems that just as marketers think they have the social network all figured out, the rules change. Some of the most recent modifications to Facebook have made it more difficult for marketers to get their messages across, at least in the ways they are accustomed to reaching their audiences on the social network... Critics say it is just a money-making move to get desperate marketers to spend more on promoting and boosting Facebook content, instead of relying on free organic visibility. At any rate, the reach of page posts appears to be narrowing on Facebook, and marketers will need to adjust. At the same time, Twitter is unveiling some pretty stellar new option...

What nightspots trend on Twitter? Heineken helps young people find out. You’ll also learn what people really share on social networks, how to write like a spy, why word crimes are way worse than blurred lines, and why joining Instagram may be the smartest thing the TSA ever did. Skim for your share of state secrets. Weird Al - YES! Read more at MarketingProfs .

Young aspiring business owners are invited to learn the basics on how to turn good ideas into profitable ventures at the live Twitter chat on Feb. 19 hosted by the U.S. Small Business Administration (@SBAgov). Tameka Montgomery from SBA’s Office of Entrepreneurial Development and Bridget Weston Pollack from SBA’s resource partner SCORE will share tips on developing a business plan, ways to get startup financing, and how to overcome those initial hurdles entrepreneurs face when starting out. The event will be held during National Entrepreneurship Week, Feb. 15-22 (#sbaEweek).

In 2013, organizations finally began in earnest to integrate social technologies into recruitment, development and engagement practices. In 2014, this social integration will become the status quo. The digital immigrants have now caught up to the digital natives – we are now all digital citizens. The fastest growing demographic on Google+ is 45-54 and on Twitter it is 55-64! And it’s a good thing that baby boomers and other older generations have embraced these tools, because using social media inside companies will be increasingly important in 2014 and beyond. More from FORBES .

From Marketing Profs : On average, nearly one-half (47%) of social media users say they've taken some type of action offline (e.g., attending an event, meeting someone in person, making a purchase) after interacting with a social networking site, according to a survey from ACTIVE Network. Across the five social networks studied—Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+, and Pinterest—Facebook drives the most offline actions overall: 87% of Facebook users have taken some type of action offline as a result of an interaction via the site. Pinterest (70%) ranks second in generating offline actions, followed by LinkedIn (60%), Twitter (56%), and Google+ (37%).

"Unfortunately, the whole B2B/social media relationship isn’t without its own set of growing pains as well. Which is, naturally, to be expected; as exemplified by the aforementioned cat videos and pop stars, figuring out exactly how your business ought to engage on these platforms isn’t perfectly intuitive, nor have these channels been around quite long enough for their to be a widespread, well-established protocol. As a result, a great many businesses are not only failing to maximize the benefit of being present on social media, but they might also be hurting themselves." Here are a few common mistakes in B2B social marketing and how you can avoid them: B2B Social Marketing Mistakes You're Probably Making

"Are you tweeting in your meetings? Do you complain online about your co-workers’ annoying quirks? If so, your employer probably doesn’t appreciate you sharing proprietary or negative information about their company with the world. But can they do anything about it? Yes, if they have a social media policy. "While employers adore social media for brand promotion and marketing, they don’t like it when an employee opens up a party popper of bad news about the company that can cover the world in seconds." Read more HERE .

At our staff training, this week we heard a series of presentations from Josepf Haslam of DragonSearch. "We are at the dawn of a new Age with social media. It’s both an evolutionary and revolutionary age. It’s a truly disruptive technology and social system for businesses and individuals. "I assert that you need to get social or die . If this is your view of social - and believe me, a couple years ago when I looked at Twitter, I had the idea [it was the] perfect combination of narcissism, ADHD, and stalking -... for you and for businesses, you need to change this. You need to make it your force for being found and getting business.

For years the question, “What is Twitter,” was among the top searches in Google. While the answer is varied depending on who’s answering, what’s consistent across the board is that people find value in the network for very personal reasons. That means that people are weaving emotional connections in the network based on the people they follow and those who follow them back. This includes friends of course, but also organizations, athletes, celebrities, musicians, as well as their favorite businesses. So as a small business owner, entrepreneur, or service provider, why is this, or Twitter for that matter, important to you? More specifically, how could Twitter’s indefinable characteristics improve your business? More HERE .

"Trying to unlock Twitter's business potential? Maintaining an effective Twitter presence can be a powerful part of your social media marketing strategy," and HubSpot is offering "the know-how to effectively take advantage of it." "Learn how to leverage Twitter's 360 million users in [their] complimentary guide, Introduction to Twitter for Business , which covers everything from getting started with tweeting to generating leads and sales."

The Postal Service has taken its case for five-day delivery to the Postal Regulatory Commission, claiming that current volumes do not support six-day service. The USPS is required by law to seek an advisory opinion from this commission any time they propose a nationwide change in service. Read more . Yes, you may have heard about that. But guess who sent the e-mail to me? Pitney Bowes. They send out a regular e-letter about topics that affect their clients. P-B machines are used to print out postage labels, among other things. In the same message P-B talks about small business and social media . You should be using Facebook and Twitter to tell you customers important, and relevant info...such as an impending five-day USPS delivery schedule.

This article (" Social Media Helps Some Small Businesses Endure Bad Economy ") is something you've seen before, but it bears repeating. Use of Facebook, Twitter, et al. requires imagination, just like any marketing campaign would (but at a much better price). This article focuses on the efforts of certain eating establishments. For those clients seeking inspiration, read on.

Next time you have a tax question, consider going to Twitter for the answer. TurboTax now has a group of folks on Twitter, prepared to answer tax questions on the fly. You can read more abou their set-up here: http://mashable.com/2010/02/01/turbotax-twitter/ Or just go straight to the source and their Twitter feed here: http://twitter.com/teamturbotax To see the questions they are answering, click on any of the @username links in the answers. Will they be able to keep up with the questions as the tax deadlines approach? It’s hard to tell. Still, it’s a good example of a useful service application for Twitter. Do you know any small businesses that might be able to create goodwill with their customers (or SBDC clients?) by answering their questions on Twitter?

Social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn have been all the rage for the past few years, but the big question of profitability was always looming. Sure, they had a lot of members, but did these companies have any way to make money? Well, Twitter seems to have figured it out, at least for the time being. Twitter has just signed two agreements which will allow Twitter posts to be searchable by Google and Bing (Microsoft). The respective $15 and $10 million dollar agreements will open up your Twitter tweets to data mining, and will make the company profitable (we think - Twitter is privately held, and isn't giving away all their financials.) Read more at BusinessWeek: " Content-Search Deals Make Twitter Profitable "

From the description by Eric Olsen, Publisher of Blogcritics/Technorati Earlier this month, denizens of the blogosphere descended on Las Vegas for three days of networking and socializing at the 2009 BlogWorld & New Media Expo. Besides the conference and trade show, there was much to learn from the keynote speakers, and of particular interest was the 2009 State of the Blogosphere delivered by Technorati CEO Richard Jalichandra. The 2009 State of the Blogosphere Introduction : Why the results of the survey are displayed according to four different types of bloggers. Day 1: Who Are the Bloggers? We delve into the demographics. Day 2: The What and Why of Blogging : Why we do what we do. Day 3: The How of Blogging : How often we blog, what technologies we use, and whether or not we track our traffic. Day 4: Blogging Revenues, Brands and Blogs : Branding and monetizing our blogs. Day 5: 2009 Trends: Political Impact of Blogging, Twitter Usage . In addition to the survey results, you...

Unsurprisingly, we at the Research Network are keen on blogs and blogging. But it's true that a blog that's not updated regularly is probably more problematic than no blog at all. Chris Crum over at Small Business Newz addresses this issue in Business Blogs Only Work if You Use Them . After he notes all of this blogs lying abandoned in cyberspace, Chris notes the benefits of sticking with it: Chris notes that a business blog "can inspire trust and keep the public informed about your business activities. However, it's only going to be a great tool if it is maintained. "I realize an update every day is not always practical, but I wouldn't advise against it unless there is nothing to say. You probably don't want to force your writing, but regular updates are key to making sure people know you are taking the blog seriously, and it will give them reason to come back (or hopefully subscribe via RSS). If your business is on Twitter (or other social media sites)...

Remember the intern at Morgan Stanley who shocked his bosses when he reported that he and his peers weren't all that into Twitter ? According to a recent New York Times article, he seems to be correct about teens and Twitter. " Who’s Driving Twitter’s Popularity? Not Teens " examines the demographics of Twitter users, and argues that technological tools can succeed, even without the trendsetting prowess of the teen crowd. It's a good lesson - not every online tool needs to be marketed to the under-18 crowd, after all they are notoriously fickle, and some applications are just better suited to adults.